Experience the rainforest

Explore the rainforest without leaving the UK. The Living Rainforest is home to 700 species of plants and animals. Watch birds, butterflies, lizards and a two-toed sloth roam free in our tropical glasshouses.... Read more

Schools programme

Each year, The Living Rainforest's acclaimed education programme welcomes over 25,000 school children. Four tours are available, supporting key subjects in the Curriculum.... Read more

Our history

The Living Rainforest stands at the former site of one of Europe's leading orchid nurseries. In 1993, it re-opened as a rainforest visitor centre. Today, with registered educational charity status, we welcome over 90,000 visitors a year.... Read more

Solutions for sustainable living

The Trust for Sustainable Living, which runs The Living Rainforest, hosts a range of events on contemporary sustainability topics, including the annual International Schools Essay Competition & Debate and Schools Sustainability Challenge. Subscribe to our newsletter (below) for occasional news updates.... Read more

News & Media

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Giant turtle invades local rainforest

The Living Rainforest, which is funded by the ReDiscover venture, is hosting a life-size model of an endangered leatherback turtle for a week, commencing March 9, as part of a nationwide campaign to highlight the plight of the UK’s marine turtles.

The leatherback turtle is touring over twenty institutions in the British Isles as part of the 2005 EAZA (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria) Shellshock campaign. The Living Rainforest is encouraging local people to help raise the £100,000 target, which will further the campaign to save thirty-six tortoise and turtle species from the brink of extinction.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an art workshop, on Saturday, March 12, in which youngsters can make clay models, using The Living Rainforest’s very own resident Geoffroy’s toad-headed turtle, Red-eared sliders and Home’s hingeback tortoise as inspiration.